When it comes to skin care for myself and my family I'm a stickler for pure ingredients that aren't going to cause reproductive toxicity, among other things, with the pretty little bubbles they give the kids in the bath tub. I'm sure you've realized as well, products that have purer, safer ingredients aren't always the most budget friendly - especially when it comes to women's skin care lines.
If you haven't been to Skin Deep it's a fascinating place to hang out and learn more about everything you have in your bathroom and whether the listed ingredients are harmful or not to yourself and your kids. Some products surprised me in that they have improved over the years and others you realize, just don't care that they make, market and sell a product that is full of known carcinogenic substances and other toxic crap that just isn't good for you.
So what's a granola girl on a budget to do?
Make her own! :D
I made up my own little facial scrub last month before I left for Vancouver Island and then of course I forgot it there. :Þ But I loved how my face was looking after 10 days of just natural ingredients cleaning my skin. It was soft and glowing and just looked good if I do say so myself!
Today I whipped up a batch of my own, took some pics to share with y'all and hopefully you'll see just how ridiculously simple it is to have your own organic facial scrub in less time than it would take you to actually go out to the store and buy it!
What you need:
~Unpasteurized Honey (unpasteurized is better, it still has all the good micro nutrients in it)
~Organic Raw Whole Oats (any kind works just as long as it isn't the instant kind)
~Organic Raw Whole Almonds, preferably with the skin still on
~Dried Lavender flowers
~ 250 ml/1 cup sized wide mouth mason jar (or any other jar you like, I myself, like mason jars :D )
~Tea Tree Oil
~Lavender Essential Oil
~Vitamin E oil
I honestly didn't measure specifically (this is Laila writing this post, remember?! ;o) ), I just had out my two, wide mouth mason jars and went by that. I wanted to make enough to fill both jars 3/4 of the way.
If I had to guesstimate, I would say I used about 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of almonds, 1/4 cup of lavender flowers, approximately 1 tablespoon of Vitamin E oil, 10 or so drops of Tea Tree Oil, 5 drops of Lavender oil and about 1 cup of honey - enough to make a thick goopy paste.
Place the rolled oats, almonds and dried lavender flowers in the blender (or any other kitchen gadget you have that will pulverize it all together quickly and easily). Leave out about 1/4 of the almonds and 1/4 of the oats and a pinch of the lavender for the very, very end.
Mix your ingredients up (with the exception of what you are saving for the end) until they are fine and crumbly. You might have a few stray almonds that didn't quite get ground right up like the rest. That's fine, just put them aside with the other almonds you are saving for later.
You should at this point have a beautiful crumbly mixture that smells divine!
Take the almonds you have put aside and chop them up with a sharp knife or something that will chop them up until they are considered coarsely ground (I used my Slap Chop thingy). I found if I tried doing this in the blender I didn't get that coarsely ground consistency I wanted, so that is why I suggest using a good large kitchen knife or Slap Chopper etc.
Empty both your finely ground mixture and coarsely ground almonds into a large bowl. Add in your extra whole oats, your honey, your vitamin E oil, tea tree oil and lavender oil. If your honey is really quite solid and will be hard to mix in, put it in a separate bowl and add a teaspoon of boiling water. Do this one teaspoon at a time until you have the somewhat runny consistency you want and then add it into the ground up mixture. Don't put it in the microwave! You will completely zap out all the wonderful nutrients and enzymes that honey has to offer.
Mix it all together until it looks like a thick, sticky wonderfully goopy mess...
Here is a close up. Your face is going to love you! :D
Have your jars handy and just start scooping the mixture into them. I added a few more drops of tea tree oil and vitamin E oil to each jar at the very end just to be safe. The honey is antimicrobial, anti bacterial and antiviral, the vitamin E works as a natural preservative and the tea tree oil is also wonderfully, antimicrobial and anti bacterial so you shouldn't have to refrigerate this. I haven't had to yet and it has been fine. I find one jar will last me about a month or so give or take.
Sprinkle the rest of the lavender flowers over the top of the scrub for a pretty, final touch.
To use, simply get your face a little wet with a washcloth, take a small amount and spread/scrub evenly over your skin and wash off gently with your washcloth. It's that simple! It also works wonderful as a good hand scrub after you've been digging around in the garden.
There you go! A wonderful, almost organic, all natural facial scrub in less than 20 minutes!
What do you make at home that has replaced a store bought product?
I hope you are all having a great week so far!
With love and light ♥,
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